Can you believe we only have three more months in the Newbery Through the Decades challenge? Wow! I’ve enjoyed it SO much, and although I haven’t been able to read as much for it as I’ve wanted to, I’m so glad to have read the books I have gotten to. In fact, I’m already making plans to do it again in 2016, and I hope you’ll join me!

Of course, we still have three more decades to explore. Without further ado, here’s our list for the 1990s:

1999 Medal Winner:Holesby Louis Sachar

Honor Book:

A Long Way from Chicagoby Richard Peck

1998 Medal Winner:Out of the Dustby Karen Hesse

Honor Books:

Ella Enchantedby Gail Carson Levine

Lily’s Crossingby Patricia Reilly Giff

Wringerby Jerry Spinelli

1997 Medal Winner: The View from Saturday by E.L. Konigsburg

Honor Books:

A Girl Named Disasterby Nancy Farmer

Moorchildby Eloise McGraw

The Thiefby Megan Whalen Turner

Belle Prater’s Boyby Ruth White

1996 Medal Winner: The Midwife’s Apprenticeby Karen Cushman

Honor Books:

What Jamie Sawby Carolyn Coman

The Watsons Go to Birmingham: 1963by Christopher Paul Curtis

Yolonda’s Geniusby Carol Fenner

The Great Fireby Jim Murphy

1995 Medal Winner: Walk Two Moonsby Sharon Creech

Honor Books:

Catherine, Called Birdyby Karen Cushman

The Ear, the Eye and the Armby Nancy Farmer

1994 Medal Winner: The Giverby Lois Lowry (Houghton)

Honor Books:

Crazy Ladyby Jane Leslie Conly

Dragon’s Gateby Laurence Yep

Eleanor Roosevelt: A Life of Discoveryby Russell Freedman

1993 Medal Winner:Missing Mayby Cynthia Rylant

Honor Books:

What Heartsby Bruce Brooks

The Dark-thirty: Southern Tales of the Supernaturalby Patricia McKissack

Somewhere in the Darknessby Walter Dean Myers

1992 Medal Winner:Shilohby Phyllis Reynolds Naylor

Honor Books:

Nothing But The Truth: a Documentary Novelby Avi

The Wright Brothers: How They Invented the Airplaneby Russell Freedman

1991 Medal Winner:Maniac Mageeby Jerry Spinelli

Honor Book:

The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyleby Avi

1990 Medal Winner:Number the Starsby Lois LowryHonor Books:

Afternoon of the Elvesby Janet Taylor Lisle

Shabanu, Daughter of the Windby Suzanne Fisher Staples

The Winter Roomby Gary Paulsen

This is definitely the decade for which I’ve read the most titles. If my memory serves me correctly, I have read seventeen of these, give or take a few. Alas, I read all of these in my pre-blogging days, so I have no reviews to share from Hope Is the Word. If someone wants to know what I recommend, though, I’m happy to share. Hands down, my favorite title of the bunch is A Long Way from Chicago by Richard Peck. Peck is a favorite of mine, and he never ceases to amaze me with his ability to blend humor and pathos. It’s a hilarious, touching, must-read. Once you meet Grandma Dowdell, you’ll never forget her.Another title I highly recommend is The Watsons Go to Birmingham–1963 by Christopher Paul Curtis. This one captures a child’s perspective in a very volatile time in history, all with a generous helping of humor. I love it, too.

There are so many good books on this list that I won’t even begin to name names (excepting the two above, my favorites) for fear of leaving someone out. As for what I’m going to read, well, I’m focusing on titles I know I haven’t read. I might pick up one of the nonfiction titles because it’s about time I paid Russell Freedman some attention. We’ll see what comes my way.

Greetings on this hot and humid July afternoon! I hope you’ve all taken a few minutes even today to enjoy a good book! This afternoon my big girls were gone with Nana to get some help with a sewing project, so I put a movie on for the DLM while Benny finished up his nap, and I spent a blissful hour or so engrossed in a wonderful new-to-me Newbery winner that happens to be from July’s list. I’m right in the middle of The Hero and the Crown by Robin McKinley, and I am LOVING it. I can’t wait to share more about it! Look for a review sometime next week.

Also, in case you missed it, I also shared my thoughts on Gone-Away Lake by Elizabeth Enright. This one isn’t from the 1980s; it won an honor in 1958. However, I just read it aloud to my girls this month, so I thought I’d share it here.

Isn’t it wonderful to finally make time to read some of these books you’ve wanted to read for years? Yes, it is! I want to hear all about what you’ve read this month for the challenge. Please, share in the comments, or link up your blog posts. Also, be sure to come back tomorrow to chat about August’s challenge!

Hello! How are you all doing these days? I feel like I’ve been away for most of the summer and only slowly began making my return this month. We have been in a fairly consistent read-aloud routine, so that‘s something to smile about.

This has been the summer of Elizabeth Enright. We have read both Gone-Away Lake and Return to Gone-Away. We just finished Return to Gone-Away on Tuesday night, so I’m just now sharing my thoughts. (Do go back and read my short review of the first book in order to get the characters in order.) This story picks up where the first books ends, more or less, with the Portia and Foster’s family deciding to purchase one of the grand old homes at Gone-Away, the Villa Caprice. Return to Gone-Away, then, is about their experiences in fixing up this old house, which is full of antiquities and oddities. There are quite a few adventures and even a mystery, all of the rather mild sort, with just a teensy bit of the creep factor (this being a very old and derelict house). My favorite part of the story is when Julian and his cronies decide to spend the night in one of the grand old deserted houses (unbeknownst to their families, natch) and spend some terrified moments when their campout is crashed by none other than a billy goat named Uncle Sam (who manages to finish off the tottery old staircase with his clattering and climbing). Yes, it’s as funny as you might imagine. Another favorite episode is when Portia finds a treasure trove of seashells in the attic of the Villa Caprice, but that’s mostly because we have a resident conchologist at the House of Hope. In fact, Louise’s bedtime reading this week has been this book, so the obsession runs pretty deep:

Reading of Portia’s discovery was one of those delightfully serendipitous “Oh! You, too?” moments. Both girls cited the end, which is a very satisfying conclusion to the mystery of the story, as their favorite part. Really, the best thing about reading this book for us is the fact that it deals with houses and home, which has been the overarching theme of our summer. The end of the book says it best:

So at last the new old house had a new old name to be called by. Mr. Blake painted the name on a signpost to stand at the entrance of the drive; and Mrs. Blake had it printed at the top of all the letter paper and on the flaps of all the envelopes.

Gradually people began to speak of the place as Amberside, though there were a few diehards who never stopped calling it the Villa Caprice, or, as in the case of Eli Scaynes, the Villa Cay-priss.

But Julian and Joe and Tom and Lucy and Davey never called it anything except “the Blakes’s house”; and Portia and Foster never called it anything but “home.” All their lives they knew that one of the best things that ever happened to them was to be able to call it that. (211-12)

{Happy sigh.}

As always, the very best thing about Enright’s books are the description and characterization. I shared a quote here that showcases that. Do we recommend the Gone Away Lake pair? Yes! Is it my favorite of Enright’s books? No. I will forever and always love the Melendys best. Any time spent with Enright, though, is time well spent! (Harcourt, 1961, 1989)

Steady Eddie is in the middle of reading The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe aloud now. I started it after realizing that the DLM is roughly the age Louise was when I first read it aloud to the girls. Plus, July is the month for Carrie’s Narnia Challenge, and I wanted to get in on it. After the first chapter or so, though, I decided to invite Steady Eddie into the fun. He read the whole Narnia series for the first time earlier this year (!!!), so he was happy to jump in. Our read aloud routine has almost always revolved around our school day, so it hasn’t always been possible for him to participate. Now, though, we’re busier than ever during the day, so bedtime is the most consistent read-aloud time for us. (I’m sure we’ll move back to lunchtime reading, too, as we settle back into a school routine.) I’ve been in and out of the room, busy, during the reading this time, so I can’t say for sure how well it’s going over, but I’m pretty sure it’s a hit. 😉 Just when I think the DLM isn’t listening, he prostrates himself across Steady Eddie’s back (as he‘s lying in the floor) and asks a question, so yes, it’s an unqualified success.

Picture books aplenty have been consumed this month, but I haven ‘t made note of the more popular titles. In fact, just as I’m writing this, I hear the DLM “reading” Barnyard Dance aloud to one of the girls (something he loves right now–reading aloud to us!) Benny just brought Freight Train to me to for us to share, so of course I stopped writing about reading aloud and actually did it.

I know Steady Eddie has been reading from a collection of Beatrix Potter tales at night to the boys, too, while I’ve read to the girls, and that makes me happy.

Just when life reaches its craziest, thankfully things (usually!) begin to settle back into place. That’s the way it has been here, with reading aloud being one of the routines we’ve returned to first. I’m so thankful for it!

What have you been reading aloud this month? Please share in the comments!

This month we’ve spent time with a favorite author, Elizabeth Enright, in two of her summertime stories. Return to Gone-Away, the second of the pair, is full of delightful descriptions. This one almost makes me want a kitten. Almost.

Mr. Ormond Horton had been as good as his word; he had brought Portia one of his cat’s best kittens. He (it was a he-kitten) was little and gray, with tabby stripes on his sides like the wavery marks on watered silk, and eyes that were still blue because he was so young.

He did all the things a proper kitten should do. He romped, rolled, pursued his tail delightfully, tapped at a thimble with his perfect paw. He could flatten his ears, crouch, growl and stalk like a tiger. He could purr a miniature purr and wash his face better than Foster could. At dusk, small though he was, he could be quite alarming as he humped his back up, bushed his tail, and danced sideways eerily at something no one else could see.

Julian had named him, though Portia had planned to. He had just scopped the kitten up in his hand and said: “Here you go, Mousenick,” and the name had stuck.

Everybody in the family liked him, and Gulliver and Othello did not mind him. As for Portia, whenever she looked at him, her heart melted. (140-141)

I’m a little hesitant to even share my opinion about a book that was extremely controversial long before it ever even hit the shelves. However, I, like everyone else, am entitled to my opinion, so here goes: my opinion might not be popular in the Deep South, Alabama in particular, but I’m going to share it anyway. (By the way, I don’t see much of a way to make this completely spoiler-free, so if you don’t want to know anything about this book, click away now. You’ve been warned. )

Go Set a Watchman takes us back to Maycomb, Alabama, a decade-and-a-half or so after To Kill a Mockingbird. Scout is no longer Scout but Jean Louise; Jem is dead; Atticus still works but suffers greatly, in his seventh decade of life, of arthritis; Calpurnia is old and “retired”; Maycomb’s still Maycomb in many ways, but time marches on. Jean Louise comes home to Maycomb from NYC for her annual visit and is met by her longtime best friend/boyfriend Hank, Atticus’ protege and surrogate son. He’s hounding her for a commitment, but her character hasn’t changed and she’s no easier than she was as a child. She’s independent and opinionated to a fault. Life turns much more complicated mid-novel when Calpurnia’s grandson (or great grandson?) runs over a man and the complexities of race relations in post-World War II America come home to Maycomb. To say that Jean Louise is devastated when she witnesses both Atticus and Hank, the two men she loves, siding with segregationists is quite an understatement. In typical Jean Louise fashion, she turns on a dime and lambasts her beloved Atticus with all manner of hatefulness and curses. (This after telling Hank where he can get off, no less.)

Up until this point, I only felt so-so about the novel. It has plenty of weaknesses in my opinion, so I was mostly confused about it and by it more than anything. However, once Jean Louise is brought up short by her eccentric Uncle Jack Finch and begins to get an inkling of what is really going on here, the story turns into one of my favorite kinds: a bildungsroman, or coming-of-age story. You see, Jean Louise, although twenty-six years old, has never had to stand on her own two feet morally. Here’s what Uncle Jack tells her:

Dr. Finch streched out his legs. “It’s rather complicated,” he said, [. . .] “Every man’s island, Jean Louise, every man’s watchman, is his conscience. There is no such thing as a collective conscious.”

—-

“. . .now you, Miss, born with your own conscience, somewhere along the line fastened it like a barnacle onto your father’s. As you grew up, when you were grown, totally unknown to yourself, you confused your father with God. You never saw him as a man with a man’s heart, and a man’s failings–I’ll grant you it may have been hard to see, he makes so few mistakes, but he makes ’em like all of us. You were an emotional cripple, leaning on him, getting the answers from him, assuming that your answers would always be his answer.” (264-65)

I LOVE the end of the story, but I won’t spoil it for anyone who’s reading this and still wants to read the book. Suffice it to say that I cried.

As for weaknesses, well, it has them. According to Annette at This Simple Home, the book wasn’t edited, and that’s pretty obvious. Sometimes it almost reads like stream of consciousness, at least to me. That alone made it a little difficult to follow. Also, I feel like Jean Louise’s reaction is a little over the top. Maybe that’s just me, or maybe it’s the fact that it would’ve actually been over the top for the time period. I don’t know. At any rate, that’s what I thought over and over again as she was giving both Hank and Atticus a very large and harsh piece of her mind. Also, for the record, Jean Louise curses just about as much (and maybe even more) than you’d expect her to. 😉

Does this book replace or complete To Kill a Mockingbird? No. Does it tarnish To Kill a Mockingbird or Atticus? No way. It’s a story about fallible people in a difficult world, but in the end, it’s about growing up. I give it a Highly Recommended. (HarperCollins, 2015)